Thursday, October 04, 2007

Below is a open letter to Minister Andrews penned by a refugee advocate. Andrews is revealing himself to be a real piece of work on refugee selectivity doctrine. Echoes of regimes in other places peal across the air waves every time he opens his mouth:

"I read with shame that no more African refugees will be allowed to settle in Australia in the near future. It is appalling that your government has judged them for having difficulty integrating, when you have yourself acknowledged what difficult circumstances they come from. Surely this means that they need MORE help not less???

It seems that your government is reaching new lows in terms of compassion and justice. Five West Papuans were also last week secretly and forcibly returned to exactly the same dangerous situation that caused them to flee. Australia has also refused to take resettlement responsibility for 72 Sri Lankans detained on Nauru who have been proven to be refugees.

The Prime Minister has been saying that the Burmese Junta is “a thoroughly loathsome regime and the repression is appalling”. Has he forgotten the 7 Burmese refugees who have been tortured by this “loathsome” regime and who now languish on Nauru because they fled the “repression”? How loathsome is that? Compassion begins at home. Bring the Burmese refugees to Australia and give them a chance at a new life- they deserve it.

While you are gearing up for an election, it appears that you are using the same old "We will decide who comes here" strategy to punish refugees as a way of proving the Government can protect our borders from vulnerable people who seek asylum in Australia."

I encourage anyone who thinks this egregious approach is unacceptable to write directly to Andrews and give him a piece of your mind.